After several high school coaching stops, Mark Homer, the new Oliver Ames boys hockey coach, feels he has finally found his home at the helm of the Tigers’ hockey program.

Homer thought he had found a home at King Philip Regional when he became the coach before the 2011-2012 season.

“After (coaching at) Taunton I said it was about time I needed a place to call home,” said Homer, who coached previously at Taunton, Noble & Greenough, Foxboro and at the junior level with the South Shore Kings. “KP didn’t work out like I thought it would and when I talked to Bill Matthews (OA’s athletic director), I told him I was looking for a home.

“I plan on being here for a while. This is not a stepping stone.”

Making the transition to his new job that much easier will be having Jimmy Tierney in net.

“Whenever I talk to someone in the Hock,” said Homer, referring to the Hockomock League, “they say ‘Congratulations, and by the way you have a great goalie.’

“That’s the No. 1 thing. You can have the five best players in front of the net, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have the goaltender.”

Homer is still hoping to challenge the young and accomplished keeper.

“He hasn’t really had much competition within the program,” said Homer. “I’m going to recruit a coach that can pressure him in a practice situation and he has to know that he has to continue to grow.”

Everyone in the Hockomock League is well aware of Tierney, meaning teams will do their best to get to the junior.

“When other teams play us, Jimmy is going to be one of their issues,” said Homer. “They’re going to try to make him uncomfortable and disrupt him, and we need to counteract that.”

Homer, who played high school hockey at Canton, knows that he’s not coaching the same team that finished 17-5-2 last season and lost in the Division 2 South Sectional final to Franklin. The Tigers have lost 11 seniors to graduation and Homer said there’s only one defenseman returning who has varsity experience.

Despite that, Homer isn’t lowering expectations for the Tigers, who have set their bar high in recent seasons.

“When you’re the new coach, the town gives you some leeway in your first year. I don’t look at it like that,” said Homer. “I’m doing as much as I can do now, so we don’t waste that first year because some of these kids only have one or two years left.

“My goal is to get them committed to effort, to the game and to each other. If we can do that, the wins, making the tournament and going into the sectionals will work itself out.”

Page 2 of 2 - Homer takes over for Jim Sullivan, who stepped down from his role of head coach but will keep his position as a teacher at OA.

Homer said Sullivan will serve as a “liaison” to the team because Sullivan works in the high school and will see the players on a regular basis.

Last year in his second year at the helm of the KP hockey program, Homer led the Warriors back to the Div. 2 South Sectional for the first time since 2008.

As a No. 11 seed, KP was tied at two against No. 6 seed Mansfield in the third period of the first round of the tourney, but fell 3-2 to finish the year with a 9-9-3 record.

In the three years before Homer took over at KP, the program had won 17 games without a tournament appearance.

In his two seasons at KP, the team finished with a 15-22-5 record and last year finished one game away from a Hockomock League Kelley-Rex Division title. KP (7-3) even finished with a better league record than OA (6-4).

Homer, who teaches at Attleboro High School, said he doesn’t want to drastically change the way the Tigers have played recently, but he hopes to open up the game more than OA has in the past.

“Puck control, pressure, speed, aggressiveness and take some space away from the opponent,” said Homer of what he hopes to infuse in his team.

Homer has already met with and talked to some of the team members, including the three team captains. Homer said within a week, he hopes to meet with as many prospective players as he can.

In the meantime until the season starts, Homer is settling into his new and hopefully final home.